The Soldiers' Achievements

Four days later, after making several arrangements, attending meetings, and signing contracts in Milet, I left the city. I returned to Calrus Fortress, then led the main force toward Gilie Valley.

During that time, we received a single message from the vanguard, reporting that they were building the fortress as originally planned.

I had increased the engineers' numbers to forty and sent them out to build the fortress, but I would rather not think about how many casualties they might have suffered.

Even with Al and Ray awakened, the historical records gave me no reason for optimism.

The kingdom had sent soldiers to that land time and again. Yet they had always been forced to retreat without even managing to establish a fortress or encampment.

The first problem was the terrain.

Gilie Valley consisted almost entirely of barren wasteland and rocky ground, making it an unsuitable place for building a fortress. The earth was hard, and there was no timber nearby for construction. Transporting materials alone would be a tremendous struggle.

The second problem was that there were only a limited number of places where a fortress could be built.

What mattered when building a fortress was terrain that was difficult to attack and easy to defend. Hills and mountaintops were preferable, but water was even more important. Without a well or some other water source, a fortress could not function.

Fortunately, several water sources had been confirmed in the valley, so we could build the fortress near one of them. But monsters needed water too. Approaching a water source meant fighting them was unavoidable...